Displaying items by tag: Europe

The Roma people, often referred to as Gypsy, are originally from India and now live scattered all over the world, especially Europe. After attending a training workshop, Marlute works with a Roma man on a OneStory project in a Central Romani dialect in Romania. OneStory works with mother-tongue speakers to develop and record worldview-sensitive, chronological Bible story sets. The whole project will take about two years. The team has drafted several Bible stories and is testing them. New-Neighbour-Bible.org was recently launched by Wycliffe Germany. The website provides information about Scripture resources in the languages spoken by the people arriving from other nations now living in Europe. Links to Bibles, Bible stories, videos and audio recordings are listed for the languages of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Resources for other countries will be added soon. Pray that churches and Christian refugee networks will find out about and use this site.

Unprecedented evangelical unity across the UK will run from April to October with 100,000+ Christians taking part in '17:21'. The initiative is named after Jesus prayer in John 17:21: 'May they all be one that the world might believe'. Christian groups, conferences and festivals will read the same Bible reading, prayer of commitment, and declaration of a shared life in Christ, and play the same worship song. Malcolm Duncan, representing Spring Harvest, added, 'The 17:21 initiative calls all of us who stand under the shadow of the Cross to link arms in the great responsibility that God has given us – presenting a living Saviour to a dying world. I have been humbled and thrilled to be part of this call to the festivals, conventions and Bible weeks in the United Kingdom to declare that we are united by far more than what divides us. May God take us beyond structural and mechanistic unity and give us the boldness and courage to stand together for Christ.' The initiative comes in the year of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

The following is from a Pray for Scotland pdf: ‘We are in unprecedented times of change and upheaval. But, praise God, we are also in unprecedented times of opportunity and openness to the Gospel. In modern warfare, ground assaults precede air attacks to remove defences, supply lines, etc. So it is in the spiritual battle. As the ground troops, our task it is to take back the ground lost to the forces of evil. We do this through mission and outreach, through acts of kindness and compassion, through being “salt and light” where God has placed us in the workplace or other part of society, and in other ways. The air assault to prepare the way for the ground troops is our prayers and worship; two warfare weapons that change the atmosphere in our streets, communities, towns, and cities - removing obstacles to the advance of the Gospel, demolishing strongholds, replacing “heaviness” in the atmosphere with “lightness”, and opening hearts and minds to receiving the truth about Jesus.’

A bill on abortion rules will be brought before Parliament on Monday under the ten-minute rule. This bill calls for the decriminalisation of abortion, without specifying any restrictions - allowing abortion up to birth, on demand, for any reason. Conservative MP Maria Caulfied commented, ‘We are surprised and deeply concerned that such a radical proposal is being brought forward. Already within our current legal framework we have seen doctors pre-signing forms, gender-selective abortions being offered, live babies being left to die following abortions that have gone wrong and children with minor disabilities, such as cleft palates, aborted.’ Also please pray for Roger Kiska, who in a historic case on Tuesday will present oral arguments before the EU Court of Justice on behalf of the 1.9 million Europeans who signed the initiative to protect the unborn child.

In France, teachers may teach about the Bible, but are strictly forbidden from proselytising or preaching. A step to keep religion out of schools was taken in 2013 when schools were ordered by law to put a charter in a prominent place to remind people of fifteen secular Republican principles. Last week a teacher in Malicornay, central France, was suspended after reading passages of the Bible to his pupils, aged between nine and eleven. Parents of pupils in the class objecting to the teacher's lessons wrote an anonymous letter of complaint to the headmaster, who then decided to suspend the teacher for his apparent disregard of France's strict secularism laws that separate religion from public sphere, in particular in education. The national education board is reviewing the case. France takes secularism - or laïcité - very seriously; however, it is unusual for a teacher to be suspended for reading a passage from the Bible.

Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) is set to win the largest number of seats in the Dutch election. The current global wave of anti-establishment sentiment, and the migrant crisis has boosted support for PVV. The election is less than a month away, and Wilders is recorded as saying, ‘All Christians should vote for my party because we are against Muslims and for Israel.’ But many believe that his populist policies generate fear and hate. A study in 2016, Saving the People, says that populists hijack religion for their cause. They see two groups of ‘enemies of the people’- the ‘elites’ and the dangerous ‘others’ who threaten the wellbeing of the people. Pray for voters to be discerning, see the bigger picture, ask what the fruit of populist policies will be, and to view everything through the lens of the radical politics of God’s kingdom. See also

As we remember the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we need to make every effort to overcome the division in the Church that followed the Reformation. In the churches in Germany and Europe there is a growing consciousness that the body of Christ can only reflect Christ and be a powerful and effective witness in society when working in unity. We need to look for our identity as Christians in denominations and the differences between us, but in Christ. Following on from their joint word for 2017, ‘Healing of memories - witnessing to Jesus Christ’, the German Bishops’ Conference and the Protestant Church of Germany have made an open invitation to a central repentance and reconciliation service in the Michaeliskirche in Hildesheim on 11 March. What Christians have caused in suffering and injury to one another in the 500 years of separation will be confessed and mutually forgiven. Unity of the body of Christ also needs alignment with God’s word to stand against the misappropriation of the gospel to support ungodly policies.

Operation World reports that as Europe becomes less religious and more secular, a non-religious worldview or a mixed spirituality dominates many people's belief systems. Christians decline in number, and the rate of decline increases each year. Many who are considered Christian do not practise their faith, and less than 10% of Europeans regularly attend church.’ The French are no exception; they say, ‘I can only depend on myself’ and, ‘I can’t trust others to watch out for me.’ Système D is a very well-known concept in France: it comes from the verb ‘se débrouiller’ which, though it doesn’t have a good English equivalent, means to figure out your way through (or around) an obstacle or a complicated situation. If you are using Système D, you are using your own resources, your own wits, your own strength to get through life. See Also, read more:

In the wake of the closure of the Dubs scheme (see article 1 in the Europe section) allowing unaccompanied minors from Calais into the UK, the Government has come under fire. Lord Dubs (himself a refugee from Nazism), who introduced the scheme, is outraged at its closure. The Archbishop of Canterbury was ‘shocked’ over the decision and asked the Government to reconsider. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the French authorities did not want the scheme to continue because it encourages people-traffickers. Deut.10:18,19 says, ‘He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. You are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt’. Also Job 31:32 says, ‘No stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveller.’

The UK Government’s decision to refuse lone child refugees (see last week’s Prayer Alert) has been a boost to traffickers, who are ‘helping’ desperate teenagers rejected by official schemes. Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chair of the home affairs select committee, said that MPs felt misled by the premature closure of the scheme after only six months. It takes councils time to set up systems, and we are back to square one, with teenagers and children at risk of traffickers in Dunkirk. Desperation is what the traffickers want. Traffickers tell children, ‘Every route has been closed, but I can help you’. Volunteers have no hope to offer them, to make them go back to the official centres. Almost 100 under-18s believe they are eligible for transfer to the UK. Hundreds are sleeping rough (about 200 are teenagers), with no shelter and donated sleeping bags. See also the article in the British Isles section.